Grooved eyelets



Sept. 23, 1969 T. w. VOICE GROOVED EYELETS Filed Sept. 11, 1967 Inventor Yr'ence M/z'llz'am Voice By his Afforney United States Patent 3,467,996 GROOVED EYELETS Terence W. Voice, Birmingham, England, assignor to USM Corporation, Flemington, NJ., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Sept. 11, 1967, Ser. No. 666,729 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Sept. 15, 1966, 41,252/ 66 Int. Cl. A43c 5/00 US. Cl. 24-141 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An eyelet of relatively small diameter and long barrel length made from tubing with a spun flange and an annular groove cut in the exterior of the barrel to improve setting under minimal axial force.

This invention is concerned with improvements in or relating to eyelets. The term eyelet is used herein to indicate a fastener comprising a tubular metal barrel having a head flange at one end. The barrel can be inserted through a hole in a workpiece and set by outwardly flanging the tail end (i.e. the end opposite the head flange). Eyelets may be used for various purposes including the reinforcement of material at localities where holes have been punched and the fastening together of parts of a workpiece.

In the assembly of components of a type comprising a ceramic or other electrical insulating support for electronic equipment, it has become customary to attach metal terminal tags to the supports by means of very small eyelets, that is to say eyelets of which the barrel diameter is of the order of 0.05 inch. The length of barrel of such an eyelet for this purpose has to be long enough to pass through the terminal tag and the insulating support, and to project far enough from the latter to allow the eyelet barrel to be set by outward flanging at the tail end. Some difliculty has been experienced in obtaining reliable setting of such eyelets in conventional eyeletting machinery due to the eyelet barrel collapsing within the thickness of the support under the load imposed axially on it by the setting tools of the machine, rather than flanging outwardly at the tail end.

One of the various objects of the present invention is to provide an improved eyelet which, though its barrel be long and of small diameter, will set reliably without collapsing in conventional eyeletting machinery.

Other objects are the elimination of longitudinal splitting in small thin walled eyelets and to improve the setting of such eyelets under conditions of minimal axial force.

In the achievement of the foregoing objects a feature of the invention relates to a groove cut near the tail end of the barrel of a relatively long eyelet of small diameter. The groove has the form of a gentle curve and a depth of approximately one-half the wall thickness of the eyelet. Best results are obtained in setting such an eyelet with generally conventional tools if the work thickness in which the eyelet is to be set is approximately equal to the distance from the underside of the eyelet flange to the center of curvature of the deepest point of the annular groove.

The eyelet according to the invention is conventionally manufactured from tubing of uniform wall thickness by a process which includes a step of spinning the flange and cutting the groove before the completely formed eyelet is parted from the tube.

The foregoing objects and features and numerous advantages of the present invention will be more fully apprecipated from the following description of an illustrative "ice embodiment taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a view of an illustrative eyelet; and

FIG. 2 is a view in section, of the illustrative eyelet after it has been set in a workpiece.

The illustrative eyelet has been made from drawn seamless brass tubing 0.047 inch outer diameter with a uniform wall thickness 0.008 inch, the tubing having been presented to tools of an automatic lathe which determined the length of tubing fed forward to make the eyelet, spun a head flange 12 on the leading end of the tubing, turned a shallow peripheral external groove 14 in the tubing at a desired distance from the head flange end, and parted the eyelet from the tubing a short distance from the groove 14 so as to leave the eyelet with a barrel 16 having a hole of uniform diameter through it.

The groove 14 of the illustrative eyelet is about 0.03 inch wide and curves gently to a depth of about 0.0035 inch in the middle, which (i.e. the middle) is about 0.025 inch from the tail end of the barrel and about 0.145 inch from the head flange end. Thus the eyelet barrel has a tail end portion about 0.01 inch long which is of uniform wall thickness.

Conveniently, the illustartive eyelet can be used to attach a metal tag 20 to a ceramic support 22 for use as a component for electronic equipment. Eyelets for this purpose are usually supplied in a range of sizes differing one from another by 0.02 inch in length of barrel. The overall thickness of workpiece for which the illustrative eyelet is specially intended, therefore, is within 0.01 inch of the distance from the middle of the groove 14 to the underside of the head flange 2. It is in a workpiece comprising the tag 20 and support 22 of this overall thickness that the illustrative eyelet is set (see FIG. 2) between opposed dies of a conventional eyeletting machine. The barrel 16 Was flanged outwardly at 24, the eyelet thus serving to clench the tag and support together. The illustrative eyelet did not show any tendency to collapse in the setting operation, although the length of its diameter was at or near that at which collapsing of an eyelet barrel is commonly experienced, nor did it show any tendency to split at its tail end.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An eyelet comprising a hollow barrel of seamless metal tubing, a spun flange at one end of the hollow barrel and an exterior circumferential groove penetrating approximately one-half way through the wall thickness of the barrel near the end opposite the flange.

2. A method of producing an eyelet comprising the steps of feeding a predetermined length of tubing into a processing Zone, rotating the tube and spinning a flange on its free end, cutting a groove in the exterior wall of the tube part way through the wall thickness and parting the flanged tube at a point more remote from the flange than the groove.

3. The method of claim 2 further charatcerized in that the groove is of gently curved cross section and penetrates approximately half way through the wall thickness of the tube.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 420,829 2/1890 Platt -37 2,030,167 2/ 1936 Miller. 2,040,939 5/ 1936 Huck. 3,099,057 7/1963 Cook 24-141 DONALD A. GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 1027 

